The Siblings of New York

by Gideon Bialkin, age 11

“The first morning of January, they all woke up at 11:00 a.m. from their party which was crazy. They were at their friend’s house last night. The firstborn’s name is Sammy, the second-born is Gideon, the third-born is Schultz, and Lisa is the youngest.”

The first morning of January, they all woke up at 11:00 a.m. from their party which was crazy. They were at their friend’s house last night. The firstborn’s name is Sammy, the second-born is Gideon, the third-born is Schultz, and Lisa is the youngest. Sammy is older than Gideon by three minutes and 30 seconds, Gideon is older than Shultz by one minute, and Shultz is older than Lisa by two minutes. They are all pretty competitive about being better at things like sports, knowledge, and other things, but that’s mostly what they fight about.

It was a Saturday, and all of the siblings went to the gym. They went to the same gym, but only Lisa had a trainer because she had to lose a little more weight than everyone else. Gideon’s workout was 15 minutes on the elliptical and two hours on everything else; he stayed at the gym the longest. Sammy played basketball for his workout, and Schultz ran on a treadmill for two hours.

Then, it was lunch time. They skipped breakfast because they woke up too late. At lunch, they had food from Panera Bread, but they couldn’t drink coffee because they were only 16 and were so tired from their basketball game. Then, they all had homework and their mom, Chresna, made them do their homework right when they got home because on Sunday they all had basketball tournaments. They were in very advanced classes except for Sammy, so they all had a lot of homework.

It took them until 7:00 p.m. to finish. After 7:00, Sammy played Fortnite until 11:00, and the only reason he went to sleep was because his basketball tournament was at 8:00 a.m.. He was on the same team as Schultz and Gideon, but Lisa wasn’t on the same team as Sammy, Gideon, and Schultz because she is too young by two minutes, and she is the best on her team. She is the only girl on her team.

In the morning, they all got up at 5:00 because their games were in Baltimore, and they live in New York. When they arrived at their games, they had a tiny sip of coffee, and they were amazing. They got 20 points each and all won their games and were very tired at the end of the day by having a coffee smash (which is when you have coffee when you are too young, and you just crash to sleep). This night, they went to sleep at 7:00 p.m..

The next morning was school, and they were late because none of them wanted to go to school at all after their weekends, but they made it to school at 10:00 a.m. thanks to their mother. Chresna had to bring them because they had already missed the bus by two hours.

At school, they all were in the same classes except for Schultz and Sammy who got kicked out of Spanish class because his teacher thought he was eating a urinal cake, but it was just a big Pop-Tart. Sammy was just bad. When it was time for Spanish class, Schultz always went outside to get his giant Pop-Tart. He could eat it now because he didn’t have his Spanish teacher to kick him out of Spanish class because he was already kicked out of Spanish class.

At the end of school, they all went home to see their mom playing Fortnite with Sammy’s friends. She said, “Am I cool now?”

Sammy responded, “Yes, Mom. As a matter of fact, you are cool now.”

Chresna said, “You can play now, but I got next.”

That night went on until 12:00. Gideon and Lisa walked into the room and were disappointed in them.

The next morning, no one got up until 11:00 a.m.. When they got to school, their teachers yelled at them for being late two days in a row. They felt embarrassed and just went straight to their classes and didn’t say anything. Sammy was the most embarrassed because everyone got there at 11:59, but Sammy got there at 12:00, so it was even worse. Sammy was not allowed into school and was happy because he didn’t have school and mad because he would have to deal with Chresna yelling at him for being late, and he would also get yelled at so much the next day.

When Sammy got home, he was preparing for Chresna to yell at him, but he saw her lying on the sofa playing Fortnite. This time, Sammy was not laughing but was telling his mom to get off the couch, so he could play.

Chresna asked why he wasn’t at school, and Sammy responded, “I was late by one minute, and they couldn’t just let me go in.”

Chresna screamed, “Why couldn’t you have ran a little bit faster? You can score 20 points in a basketball game, so why can’t you run a little bit faster?!”

Sammy responded, “Schultz was blocking my way, and why did you not wake me up earlier?”

Chresna responded, “Well… you should have just gone downstairs and went to sleep.”

Then, without explanation, Sammy went downstairs and took a nap, so he made sure he wasn’t going to be late to school. Four hours later, the siblings come back from school with a pile of homework for Sammy. Sammy did his homework until 12 a.m., so he had to be woken up by Gideon who jumped on him and broke his tooth because Gideon’s breakfast plate was under him.

Chresna didn’t care anymore. She just wanted to get Sammy to school, so she could play Fortnite. She didn’t care about his broken tooth. She cared about Fortnite because she saw Sammy playing it and thought it was awesome.

On their way to school, Sammy (who had one part of his tooth in his pocket) said, “I don’t need that other half of my tooth because that was my dirty side with mud, but this side of my tooth is the clean side where I have toothpaste.”

Just keep in mind, Sammy has the worst teeth of the family, but that was really hard because everyone had terrible teeth, and that was weird because Chresna had amazing teeth.

When they got to school, Sammy’s teacher said, “Ohh, look who we have here?”

Sammy said, “Who? All we have is a pencil and Lisa.”

Lisa said, “Sammy, you are in trouble.”

But, Sammy said, “Wait, I can explain. Look over there.”

Then, Sammy ran away to his class but then realized his class was with that same teacher.

Sammy was told to come out of class when his teacher yelled at him so bad the other class heard him get screamed at by his teacher. Sammy wondered why it had to be loud. The teacher was saying the same thing but louder and made Sammy more embarrassed. He thought, I feel like teachers just want to embarrass their students, and yelling doesn’t change the message. Just talk, please! When Gideon heard, he laughed to himself because he guessed that Sammy would get yelled at, because he was late for school.

The next night, Sammy was wishing he could be someone else for one day because he was in big trouble, and he wanted to see if everyone had as bad of a life as him. Lisa was also wishing she could be someone else for a day because she wanted to change a little bit, and she wanted to see how it would be to be a boy for a day. She was also getting bored and wanted some excitement.

The next day, on Friday, Sammy and Lisa switched bodies. Sammy and Lisa were really confused because they thought it wasn’t possible to switch bodies, but they were also very happy in a weird way because, as you know, they wanted to be someone else one day. Sammy who was Lisa thought it must be freaky friday, like that Chris Brown song, and also thought, Wow I might actually have good grades without cheating. He could feel the knowledge going to his head, and now he didn’t want to play Fortnite for once, and he knew he would have to be with other friends for a day. He was excited to try something new. Lisa was mad because she did want to be someone else for a day but not Sammy. She felt stupid, and she felt like she had the need to play Fortnite, and all she needed was a smart person next to her to cheat because Sammy was in trouble. But, anyone else would have been better, except for Schultz, because all she would do then is run. Even during class, she would run in place. But, she thought, wait, if she was Sammy then that would have to mean that Sammy was her.

“Shoot,” she whispered, because Sammy usually got up early to play Fortnite, and everyone was asleep.

When everyone got to school, Lisa went to Sammy and said, “How did this happen, and why did this happen?”

Sammy responded, “Maybe it was meant to happen, so you could finally feel bad for me.”

Lisa said, “Why do you need me to see how bad your life is? You have to see how bad my life is.”

When Sammy got with Lisa’s friends, he realized how he was definitely not a girl and would never be a girl.

One of Lisa’s friends said, “How was your weekend?”

Sammy said, “I played Fortnite almost the whole time, except when I had my basketball game.”

Then, Lisa’s friends all said that sounds like the most boring weekend ever.

Then, one of them said, “Last weekend, I went to Long Island and rode horses, but my boot broke, so I had to go back to the mall, but I couldn’t find a horse store, so I was looking for a new boot all weekend.”

The other friend said, “Oh my god, that sounds fun because you got to go to a lot of malls, right? And you got new boots, right?”

The horse friend said, “First, we went to almost all of the malls in America, and I did get the boots.”

Sammy said, “Why did you have to go to all the malls in America, and why couldn’t you have just got it on Amazon? I mean, I think that they have drones now.”

The horse friend said, “Umm, because going to malls is fun.”

Sammy asked about basketball because he knew that Lisa liked basketball, so he thought that her friends would also like it. So, he asked, and they were very confused.

Then, one friend remarked, “Lisa, what has gotten into you? You seem like such a different person.”

Then, Sammy ran away and went to Lisa in Sammy’s body and said, “Do you fake being yourself, because your friends are not like you at all.”

Then, Lisa said, “Who were you talking to?”

Sammy responded and pointed to those people.

Lisa said, “Those aren’t my friends. Those are the pretty girls.” Lisa then pointed at the group in the corner and said, “Those are my friends.” Lisa then remarked on Sammy, “Sammy why are you wearing a dress? I never wear a dress. They must have thought you were Lisa Trodstein. Ha.”

When Lisa went back to her class, she felt way too smart for that class and said, “Teacher, can I get a harder paper?”

The teacher said, “Wow, Sammy you are barely in this grade, but you want a harder worksheet? Wow.”

Lisa in Sammy’s body said, “Yes, yes I do.”

The teacher gave Lisa the worksheet, and she aced it and finished in five seconds. The teacher was very impressed and said, “Sammy, you are not Sammy.”

Lisa in Sammy’s body said, “The whole year I was scared to do harder things.”

Lisa of course lied and realized that this wasn’t her life, so she could do whatever she wanted, but she wanted to see how Sammy would do in a different class. Sammy’s teacher said, “Okay, Sammy you shall have a chance in the higher class, but you have to take a test right now.”

Lisa aced the quiz, and school ended, so Lisa went home with Sammy. When they woke up in the morning, they switched back bodies.

When Sammy got to math class, he went to his class, and his teacher said, “Ohh sorry Sammy, but you’re in that class now.”

Sammy said, “What? Okay.”

The first problem on the paper took Sammy the whole class, but then after everyone was done, the teacher explained the problem and the answer to the problem. But, a miracle happened. Sammy actually understood the problem, and he was actually getting math.

Gideon was pretty happy with this week except for when all of his friends started talking about Fortnite, but he never played before, so he saw that Sammy looked happy for solving his first ever math problem. So, Gideon asked Sammy if he would help him learn how to play Fortnite. Sammy, being the changed person he was, said, “Yes.”

He taught Gideon how to play Fortnite, so as usual, Sammy played Fortnite until one o’clock in the morning. But this time, he did it with Gideon. The next day, Gideon felt so much better at Fortnite and knew the general topic of Fortnite, so now he could talk about it with his friends. Schultz was running around the hall as always, but this time he ran into Gideon and said, “I see you are talking with your friends a lot more.” Then, he said, “I want friends.”

So, Gideon felt lucky that Sammy taught him how to play Fortnite. He was going to help Schultz, so he introduced Schultz to the running club. Schultz made friends easily, but Schultz realized that since Gideon helped him, he should help Lisa lose weight because she is not so skinny. Lisa was offended at first but then gave in and lost a lot of weight. So, everyone helped everyone, and they all had a great week.

But, it was also a weird week because to recap this week, they came home from a huge party, they had a great basketball game due to coffee, they came to school late because they were tired, Chresna got into Fortnite, Sammy was yelled at by his teacher because he missed a day and was late to school, Sammy broke his tooth on Gideon’s breakfast plate, Sammy and Lisa switched bodies, and Schultz finally didn’t run for one second for the first time in his life.